After failing to qualify for Friday’s Dew Tour women’s ski halfpipe final in Colorado, Roz Groenewoud’s admission that she needed to get her knee examined appeared to be an ominous red flag for the Squamish resident and Olympic medal contender.

“Very hard watching@DewTour from my phone while enroute to a knee specialist in Canada. But congrats @maddiebowman @Angeli_ @britasig!” the 2011 world champion and two-time X Games gold medallist tweeted.

But David Mirota, Freestyle Canada’s high-performance director, insisted there was no need for alarm.

For a man who recently saw Quebecer Olivier Rochon, the 2012-13 World Cup aerials titleholder lost for the season with a blown knee and who has three women skiers trying to come back from knee surgeries, that’s a relief.

Americans Maddie Bowman, Angeli VanLaanen and Brita Sigourney swept the podium at Breckenridge in the Olympic season opener for ski and snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle. The Dew Tour stop is also the first of five events at which Canadian and American athletes can build qualifying results for Sochi, where slopestyle and ski halfpipe will make their Olympic debuts.

“Roz is already locked in for the Olympics,” Mirota said in a telephone interview. “Yes, she didn’t make finals (she was 10th in qualifying Wednesday with only the top eight advancing), but she completed a new trick for the first time.

“And the focus for her is building for her Olympic run. Results on the way in are not really the priority, especially in December.”

“She’s just got a little nagging knee pain, nothing serious. She’s already qualified, so it’s about getting her checked out, so it doesn’t play with her head.”

The new trick she completed is called a flare, which Mirota described as an inverted back flip.

Calgary native Megan Gunning also missed the final, finishing ninth in qualifying, while Edmonton native Kelsie Hansen was 15th. The two, both of whom have been on World Cup or Grand Prix podiums in the past, are coming back from knee surgeries in the spring.

Another Canadian, Kaya Turski of Montreal and one of the top medal threats in ski slopestyle, is still rehabbing from her knee surgery and is hoping to be ready in time for Sochi.

“There is always a threat in these types of sports,” said Mirota of the rash of knee injuries to Canadian freestyle skiers. “Like we’ve always said, it’s about managing the risk.”

In other events at the Dew Tour, Dara Howell of Huntsville, Ont., qualified fourth for Saturday’s women’s ski slopestyle final. American Maggie Voisin, who is just 14, qualified first. Quebecer Alex Beaulieu-Marchand qualified sixth for the men’s ski slopestyle final.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated final goes Sunday, the men’s snowboard slopestyle, featuring American legend Shaun White, a two-time Olympic halfpipe gold medallist, and Canadian star Mark McMorris, a two-time reigning X Games champion in slopestyle.

White got the early edge by posting the best score of the 30 competitors in Friday’s qualifying, a 93.20 out of 100 that he ripped off on his first of two runs.

McMorris, a Regina native, squatted down on a landing on his first run, scoring just 37.40, so he needed to pull out all the stops on his second. Fortunately, he scored a 70.0 to qualify 11th among the 16 who will compete in Sunday’s final. Quebecer Sebastian Toutant, also a strong medal contender for Sochi, had the third best qualifying score with an 86.20

“My legs were shaking, but I knew that I had landed that run so many times and that it was uncharacteristic for me to fall like that,” McMorris, who just turned 20, told reporters in Breckenridge. “But I got it done and that’s all that matters. Sunday is a new day.

“There’s a lot of tension around slopestyle this year, it’s pretty wild stuff. I think it’s going to be a fun year. I just need to not scare myself like that again.”

White won four straight X Games slopestyle titles from 2003 to 2006 before turning his full focus to halfpipe. He wants to compete in both disciplines in Sochi and spent considerable time this fall training on a personal halfpipe and slopestyle training ground in Australia.

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